Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Welcome to the last day of July. Is it just me or does summer seem over already? Anyway, listed below are pairs of songs recorded by “two-hit” wonder artists and the years the songs were released. Your challenge is to name the artists.

1. You Spin Me Round (1985), Brand New Lover (1987)

2. Gotta Get Thru This (2002), If You’re Not the One (2003)

4. Orinoco Flow (1989), Only Time (2001)

5. The Power (1990), Rhythm is a Dancer (1992)

6. Gotta Tell You (2000), Baby Come Over (2001)

7. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover (1992), As I Lay Me Down (1995)

8. Wild Thing (1998), Funky Cold Medina (1989)

9. This is How We Do It (1995), Get It On…Tonite (2000)

10. Virtual Insanity (1997), Canned Heat (1999)

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below, and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

Friday, July 27, 2012

This is not your typical Olympic preview debating whether Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte will win more medals or dissecting the U.S. men’s basketball team. Instead, this preview highlights some of the more random parts of the Olympics and my friend Ric Blas competing in his second Olympic Games for Guam in Judo. I’m sure that you’re wondering how I know an Olympic athlete, particularly one from Guam. Did you know that I was fairly well known in the judo world for my prowess on the mat? You probably didn't know this since it isn't true. I did earn a white belt from doing one month of karate though!

Actually, I noticed Ric during the Beijing Games, since he was difficult to miss as Guam’s flag-bearer, and he later agreed to do an interview with me. While I’ve never personally met Ric, we’ve been Facebook friends for the past four years, and he’s a very cool guy. While NBC will focus on swimming, gymnastics and track and field, I highly encourage you to find Ric’s judo matches and support him. I’ll include some pictures of Ric from London throughout this piece and you should check out this recent interview of Ric by Guampdn.com (even though my interview was significantly better), but let the Olympic preview begin!

- The complete roster of the American Olympic team includes three people named Sean. Therefore, I would also like to invite Sean Furey, Javelin Throw; Sean Rooney, Volleyball Outside Hitter; and Sean Rosenthal, Beach Volleyball to share any thoughts on the Olympics since this blog is Sean's Ramblings! [ESPN]

- The best name in the Olympics is clearly Dong Dong of China. Dong Dong is the favorite to win gold in the Men's Trampoline after earning a bronze medal in Beijing and winning the 2012 London Test Event. Yes, I am 12 years old sometimes. [NBC Olympics]

- With Rafael Nadal withdrawing from the Olympics stating that he is "not in condition" to compete, I'd like to congratulate Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roger Federer for winning the men's tennis Olympic medals! It's just a matter of who wins gold, silver and bronze.

- The first athlete kicked out of the Olympics for steroids is Voula Papachristou of Greece. Wait a minute, Papachristou was actually expelled for a racist joke on Twitter. [Yahoo]

- Meanwhile Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice is also on Twitter and posted this picture earlier this summer.

- Donald Sanford was born in Los Angeles and attended Arizona State University where he met his future wife. This doesn't sound at all unusual, right? Well, his wife is an Israeli who was studying abroad. Sanford is now an Israeli citizen running track for Israel. Despite being born in America and attending ASU, Sanford can now be deported any time he visits Arizona based on the state's laws. (That last line is not in the article.) [The Times of Israel]

- Archery will likely be more popular this year than ever before courtesy of The Hunger Games. I put the over/under of references to Katniss Everdeen and the movie/book during the Olympics at 72,591.

- The second greatest Olympic name is William Speed Lane Fox-Pitt. Yes, Speed Lane is really his middle name. It’s like Megan Fox and Brad Pitt had a son who became a British equestrian guy. [Facebook]

- Let me address Michael Phelps. First, does his mother still have a clothing line at Chico’s? Phelps is expected to break the record for most Olympic medals by surpassing Soviet Union gymnast Larisa Latynina who won 18 medals in the 1956-1964 games. While this is an amazing accomplishment, it’s not really fair. As a swimmer, Phelps competes in 7 or more medal events during the Olympics. Meanwhile, the greatest wrestler (for example) of all time can only win 1 medal during the games. There’s no team wrestling event or different styles of wrestling, such as arm wrestling or a steel cage version, like there is for swimming. I feel like Phelps should compete in one swimming event and then try to medal in shot put or something.

- Americans Gabby Douglas (gymnastics) and Ellis Coleman (Greco-Roman wrestler) are both nicknamed the Flying Squirrel. If either or both of them win a medal, Ithaca College will create a flying squirrel mascot. (No one who reads this blog will understand this reference.) [Rapid City Journal]

- Speaking of Ithaca College, good luck to Meghan Musnicki '05, a member of the US Olympic Rowing Team. [Ithaca College Athletics]

- A friend of mine knew track athlete Aires Merritt from the University of Tennessee. Unfortunately, he can't share any of the stories due to attorney-client privilege, a confidentiality agreement and the Hippocratic Oath.

- Daniel, a friend of Sean's Ramblings, created a Team Israel Olympics video page. Check it out throughout the Games. [Sass Video]

If you made it all the way to the end of this preview, thank you. I'll have much more about Ric throughout the Olympics and you can follow him on Twitter.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Have you always wanted a vacuum cleaner that you didn't buy from an infomercial? Have you ever wanted to use this vacuum as part of a web series?

If you are a neat-freak living in a world of clutter in the Washington DC area, you can get your house clean and receive a brand new Dyson vacuum! Here's the information:

A new web series for Discovery Channel is currently casting odd couples that love each other but just can’t stand living together due to the other’s standard for cleanliness (or lack thereof).

We’re looking for newly moved-in couples to participate in this wakeup call for their messy loved one. We’d love to hear from people who have just moved in within the last year.

But wait – there’s a catch! We’re keeping this top secret from your partner until the day our Clean-tervention arrives at your door ready to mop up. Part mock reality show, part practical joke don’t miss out on the opportunity to draw a line in the dirt and get your other half clean.

Participants will be rewarded for their time with a brand new Dyson vacuum cleaner as well as get their house sparkling clean!

In order to be considered:
- Please submit an email to Castingshp@gmail.com, with the subject line “No more mess!”

- Include: Pictures of yourself, your messy other-half and some of the worst examples of their mess.

- Also include a written bio about why you just cant stand the mess any longer.

- Any video you may have that shows off your personality.

If you enter and get selected, please let me know since I'd love to hear your behind-the-scenes stories.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I regularly ate at Cosi during the early days of this blog thanks to $2 off coupons that appeared in The Washington Post’s Express every few weeks. There used to be days where I would pick up 5+ editions of the Express just for these coupons. The coupons stopped years ago, so I rarely eat at Cosi anymore since I generally pack my lunch or pick up food from other restaurants.

I visited Cosi recently to get a tuna sandwich which included tuna (obviously), romaine lettuce, tomatoes and the Cosi vinaigrette. The cost was $6.79 before tax. Unlike the old Tuna Cheddar sandwich that used to appear on the menu, I learned that getting cheese was an additional 75 cents for a total of $7.54. Meanwhile a Tuna Melt with the same ingredients (I think) cost $7.29 before tax. When I pointed this out to the cashier, she kindly charged me the tuna melt price.

I mention this since 5 years ago (this really must be one of the oldest continuous blogs), the tuna melt cost 40 cents more than the tuna cheddar sandwich. Why can’t Cosi charge the same thing for this sandwich regardless or whether or not it is toasted?

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

No time for an introduction today, except to write that I’ll announce the winner of the Orient Watch giveaway later today or tomorrow. Your challenge this week is to name the artist or band that is the subject of the music biographies listed below.

1. Catch a Fire

2. Hammer of the Gods

3. The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

4. No One Here Gets Out Alive

5. Walk This Way

6. Last Train to Memphis

7. Old Gods Almost Dead

8. Just Kids

9. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band

10. Out of Sync

I may provide clues or multiple options later, but let’s see how you do first.

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below, and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

Monday, July 23, 2012

I was recently in a room where a significant event occurred. It was not at the Supreme Court for their ruling on Obamacare or at PNC Park where the Pirates swept the Marlins to go to 14 games over .500. This was much bigger. My friends watched an infomercial and proceeded to buy a vacuum cleaner by calling the number on the television screen. Plus, simply for purchasing the vacuum that day, the company also threw in a steam mop. The same vacuum was being sold on Amazon for about the same price and had excellent reviews, so I feel that due diligence was done before making this big decision. In addition, the infomercial deal included a 10-year warranty (and the steam mop) which Amazon did not.

I was impressed by my friends in purchasing something from an Infomercial since I didn’t think I knew anyone that did this. It turns out that I knew someone very well that bought something from an Infomercial…me. Sometime during or after college, I bought the two cassette tapes of Totally ‘80s and found tape #1 in the basement. (I have no idea where tape #2 is).

In case you’re wondering, here are the songs on Totally ‘80s Tape #1:

Side A
Take On Me – a-ha
Hot Hot Hot – Buster Poindexter
Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) – Billy Ocean
Walk Like An Egyptian – The Bangles
Who Can It Be Now? – Men At Work
Addicted To Love – Robert Palmer
Karma Chameleon – Culture Club
Jump (For My Love) – The Pointer Sisters
Wild Thing – Tone Loc
Everybody Have Fun Tonight – Wang Chung

Side B
Walking On Sunshine – Katrina and The Waves
Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield
The Heat Is On – Glenn Frey
Wild, Wild West – The Escape Club
Heaven Is A Place On Earth – Belinda Carlisle
She Works Hard For The Money – Donna Summer
(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me – Naked Eyes
Too Shy – Kajagoogoo
Missing You – John Waite
Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye

Thursday, July 19, 2012

The amazing folks at Orient Watch USA are giving away this incredible watch valued at $225 to one of my readers.

(I highly encourage you to click on the link simply so you can see the video of the watch features that includes amazing footage of a hand model that rivals George Costanza.)

To enter the contest, please leave a note in the comments section below with your brief thoughts on the Pittsburgh Pirates and whether you feel they will make the playoffs. Even if you have no opinion of the Pittsburgh Pirates, share something about pirates in general.

One comment/entry per person. Please enter by 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, July 23rd, and I will use Random.org to choose a winner. This contest is open to folks living in the U.S. only. (Update: While I probably know most of you that enter, please make sure there is a way for me to reach you if you win.)

This is probably the best giveaway I've ever offered had on this blog (or off of this blog), so I'm very grateful to Orient Watch USA for this wonderful opportunity.

In addition, while you are all winners, only one of you will win the watch. For everyone else, type blogger30 as a coupon code so that you get 30% off any Orient Watch.

Update: Congratulations to tecmo for winning the watch. Tecmo entered the fourth comment.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Folding strollers can be difficult, so what if a stroller folded itself. This is the Origami stroller by 4moms*

This amazing stroller automtically folds and unfolds, has daytime running lights and an LCD dashboard, and can charge your cell phone. So how much would you pay for this innovative stroller? $5000? $10,000?

I saw this stroller at a store for the low price of only $850. What a deal! Think about how many hoursminutes seconds you can save by having a stroller that folds itself. Personally, if I'm going to spend that much on a stroller, I want the stroller to change diapers too and maybe ever write a few blog posts!

While I planned to show how silly it is to pay $850 for a stroller, I'm really impressed by the video. Plus, it looks like the American headquarters of 4moms is located in Pittsburgh, so I always want to support Pittsburgh companies. Therefore, I hope that you'll support 4moms too. I'm sure that they have products that don't automatically fold that cost less than $850!

* Apparently, the names Five Guys and Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place were taken.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Collectors’ Showcase of America is hosting a Show at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly this Friday through Sunday featuring over 50 current and former professional athletes including Hank Aaron and Pittsburgh Steeler legends Jack Butler, Dermonti Dawson, Jack Lambert, Greg Lloyd and Andy Russell. The top five Steeler picks from the 2012 draft, David DeCastro, Mike Adams, Chris Rainey, Sean Spence and Alameda Ta ‘Amu will also be in attendance. Actually, by my unofficial count, there will be more current or former Pittsburgh Steelers at the Chantilly show than current or former Washington Redskins players which seems odd considering Chantilly is located in the DC metropolitan area.

Anyway, the players make some good money during this show through signing footballs, pictures and any other memorabilia you can find. For example, it costs you $110 for NFL Hall of Famer John Riggins to sign your football and $25 each for each of the aforementioned Steelers draft picks. Meanwhile, it only costs you $20 to get an autographed football from Jan Stenerud. Although Stenerud is a kicker, he is a four-time Pro Bowler and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1991.

In other words, he’s pretty good and has much better credentials than the five new Steelers who haven’t even attended their first training camp yet. While I hope all five turn into NFL Hall of Fame players for their careers on the Steelers, that seems unlikely. Therefore, why does it cost more for an Alameda Ta ‘Amu autograph than one from Jan Stenerud? (This must be the first sentence in history to include Alameda Ta ‘Amu and Jan Stenerud together!)

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Tuesday's edition of the Washington Post Express showed the starting line-up for last night's baseball All-Star Game. Despite being a pretty big baseball fan, I somehow missed the fact that the San Francisco Giants traded their All-Star third baseman Pablo Sandoval to the St. Louis Cardinals.

This is a shocking trade since Sandoval is an excellent hitter batting .307 with 8 home runs and 30 RBIs despite only playing in 53 games and with the Giants only .5 games out of the NL West and Wild Card. In addition, it's surprising that the Cardinals would aquire a third baseman since David Freese is also an All-Star and coming off a season where he was the World Series MVP.

What makes things even more interesting is that I haven't seen any other reports of a Giants-Cardinals trade and Sandoval wore his Giants gear during last night's game. Joe Buck didn't even say anything about him becoming a Cardinal. Perhaps Express knows something that we don't. Of course, perhaps not.

Monday, July 09, 2012

Welcome to the second edition of my reliving the 15-year anniversary of my cross-country road trip through sharing stories from the journal I kept during the trip. Today’s entry takes a look at the second half of the Chicago portion of the adventure. The first part of this blog post where I look at my life as a 22 year-old through the lens of Kevin Arnold and The Wonder Years could be either the best or worst text I ever wrote. I’m leaning towards the latter, but I’ll let you decide.

Wednesday, July 18, 1997

Our first major stop was at the National Broadcast Museum. I more-or-less followed my brother here because this was not on my places to go list. However, my brother encouraged me to go plus it was free. The museum itself was very interactive with classic radio shows for the most part. I liked going through Jack Benny’s vault and hearing a George Burns-Gracie Allen bit. However, I was mostly unfamiliar with many of the classic names and shows (like the Goldbergs). Upstairs, we went into the TV archives just to see what they had. I thought they would have a lot more but it was mostly a few sitcom episodes and Chicago programs. I decided that I wanted to watch the final episode of The Wonder Years. My brother thought I was being silly but this was one of my favorite shows and I didn’t remember seeing the last episode. Watching The Wonder Years final show really made me think about my past and future. (Sean's note: Am I getting deep here?)

I have graduated from college and I’m 22. At this point in my life, I am an adult. My childhood is over and I’m not sure if I like that. I have always seen Kevin Arnold as me during his junior high and high school years. (Really?) But in that last episode, at the very end, (Spoiler alert if you don’t want to know how the final episode of a show that’s been off the air for 20 years ends) he starts describing the lives of his family and friends. Winnie goes away to Paris for 8 years, his father dies 2 years later, and Kevin is married with a son. Don’t get me wrong. I’m really looking forward to San Diego and the rest of my life because I feel the best is ahead. (Cliché alert.) But leaving childhood and my dependency on my parents is tough. I guess in some sense, this road trip marks the end of one stage of my life and the beginning of the next stage. I’m trying to make the most of this trip because I’m not sure if I’ll have this chance again. Hopefully, I will with my wife and kids but that is not in the foreseeable future. Going back to The Wonder Years, Kevin realized that this was his last summer with his family and close friends. I knew a part of Kevin is in me for the trip (again, really?), and the youthfulness will stay with me forever.

What the heck was this last paragraph? (Unless some website that gives away best blog awards thinks this is awesome.) Let’s move ahead to other aspects of Chicago.

Anyway, I’m not even close to Wednesday evening. During the afternoon, we wondered around Chicago (seeing Bulls championship memorabilia everywhere) and went to the Sears Tower. Unfortunately, it was a little foggy about 5-10 miles outside the city, so we couldn’t see much past the city and some of Lake Michigan.

We ate dinner at a 50s style restaurant called Ed Debevics. The waiters and waitresses are purposely mean to you and the atmosphere really resembles an old soda shop. Our waitress was named Jewels because she wore a lot of jewelry around her neck. She was also cute and gave us hugs goodbye. I forgot to mention that when we were walking around downtown, we found a Celebration on State Street. It reminded me of the Three Rivers Arts Festival with the art and food stands.

One note about this was my brother said to me, “I could use a drink.” (My handwriting looks like I wrote Danish, but drink probably makes a lot more sense.) He was thirsty because we were walking a lot. A guy in front of us told him that there was a great deal for a 22 oz. beer just down the block. In addition, he was drunk (probably by having several of the 22 oz. beers) and told my brother that he reminded him of his 16 year-old son. (For some reason, this was very funny at the time. Doesn’t seem as funny now.)

My journal then goes into a description of seeing Shear Madness which was very cool at the time. Now that Shear Madness plays several hundred shows a year at DC’s Kennedy Center since at least 2001, it’s not as cool. Next stop: St. Louis!

Friday, July 06, 2012

Dear Pittsburgh Pirates – Call Hal Sparks, invite him to a game and have him address the crowd.

Dear Hal Sparks – Accept the invitation and become a Pittsburgh celebrity.

With a 2-0 victory over the Houston Astros last night, the Pittsburgh Pirates are 10 games over .500 for the first time since 1992. Now, just past the half-way point of the baseball season, the Pirates are in first place in the National League Central division and have the second best record in the National League. So what’s the secret of the Pirates success? The MVP performance of Andrew McCutchen? The outstanding performance of the pitching staff including All-Star Joel Hanrahan and should be All-Stars James McDonald and A.J. Burnett? The hot bat of Pedro Alvarez? The answer is Zoltan and the “Z” from the legendary, Oscar-Award winning 2000 movie Dude, Where’s My Car?

"It all started in Atlanta when we were watching [television] in the clubhouse, and there was nothing we wanted to watch," said second baseman Neil Walker, recalling the last weekend in April. "We saw 'Dude, Where's My Car?' And guys were like 'Oh, we haven't seen this in a while.' So we watched it.

"It was just so terrible and stupid. We just pulled that from it. It's just kind of our team way of bonding, I guess."

As the Pirates have continued to win, Zoltan fever has continued to spread across Pittsburgh. Therefore, I recommend that the Pirates reach out to Hal Sparks, the actor who portrayed Zoltan, and ask him to give the Zoltan speech followed by a “Let’s Go Bucs” prior to an August or September home game. The crowd will go crazy! Don’t believe me? Several years ago, the Steelers started playing the song Renegade to pump up the crowd. Today, the city goes nuts whenever Styx comes to town to perform this song.

I bet you’re also wondering why such a big star like Hal Sparks would ever consider this opportunity. He’s probably extremely busy preparing for the next season of Disney’s TV show Lab Rats or the next VH1 I Love the 80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s show. However, this type of publicity is just the spark that Sparks needs to, um, spark his career!

Of course, Sparks is from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, so if he’s a Reds fan and doesn’t want to support the Pirates, I understand. Then again, being a celebrity is nice.

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Norah Jones is prophetic. (Has anyone ever written this phrase before?*) Just like Prince predicted that people would party like it was 1999, Norah Jones accurately predicted that the entire National League Central division and all NL teams fighting for a Wild Card position would chase the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Well done, Ms. Jones, well done.

* According to Google, No results found for "Norah Jones is prophetic". That probably changes now.

Monday, July 02, 2012

During the summer between my Junior and Senior years of college, I worked as an intern for Congressman Mike Doyle at one of his Western Pennsylvania offices. As a Politics major, this was a great opportunity for hands-on experience helping people at a Congressional office. Despite receiving exactly zero dollars for two months of work and dealing with several rather crazy constituents, I really enjoyed the experience. While there clearly seems to be no cooperation between the Republicans and Democrats in our Legislature today, I never got that sense at the District office. The people in Congressman Doyle’s office, and Congressman Doyle himself, truly were there to help people. I guess the politics were left to the DC staff.

Anyway, I want to stay away from the political side of the internship and focus on what may have been the most important aspect of the summer: softball and alcohol. The members of Congressman Doyle’s staff, including me, played in three softball games culminating in a battle against Senator Rick Santorum’s staff. We played the Turtle Creek Fire Department twice as practice and went out with them for food and drinks following each game. One of my athletic highlights came during these games, as I managed to get on base during nearly every plate appearance. I was (and still am) a rather small guy compared to the firemen, so they got a little frustrated always seeing me on base. I was David Eckstein before David Eckstein! Finally, we faced Senator Santorum’s staff and you can see the result here:

Yes, the picture is extremely fuzzy (this is a copy of a copy of a 15+ year-old article, but I like the caption below the picture. How did “ringer-filled” make the publication? In case you’re wondering, Senator Santorum did not participate in the game itself, so the game was simply between the two staffs. After the game, I visited Chiodo’s for my first and only time. (And it seems like I wrote about much of this several years ago.)

Sean's Ramblings Is Everywhere

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Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
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